Hartlepool United are proud to be dedicating our home fixture against Barnet on Saturday to Her Game Too, where we will also be celebrating International Women's Day.
Her Game Too are a group of female supporters, players and officials who are passionate about football and their aim is to raise awareness of the abuse that females face within the sport and how, by working with clubs, they can eradicate it.
The voluntary organisation ran by female football fans are committed to growing the campaign, with the aim of fostering an ethos in football where women are welcomed and respected equally without the fear of sexist abuse.
Over the past year, Her Game Too's partnerships within the town and local area have grown phenomenally. We now work officially with HUFC, Hartlepool United WFC, HUCSF, HUST, Hart of Our Club 1908, Excel Medical Services, FC Hartlepool, Seaton Carew FC, St Francis FC, Wolviston FC, Greatham FC, The PFC Trust, Hartlepool Sport, East Durham College Women's team and Durham County FA.
These partnerships mean we are all:
- Pledging to stamp out sexism and misogyny.
- Inspiring women and girls to participate in football whether its playing, coaching or working anywhere within the game.
- Planning to educate everyone from all generations that football is game for all.
- Influencing other football clubs to follow our lead, especially in the North East, towards a positive change in football.
- Championing women who are doing an incredible job in football.
- Delivering the message that football is Her Game Too.
On the day we will be putting a spotlight on Hartlepool United Women, as well as the female teams within the Hartlepool United Youth Alliance. Their clubs have been invited along to the game and will take to the pitch for a lap off honour. Over 300 tickets have been given to girls in the local area.
We will be bringing back Victoria as Pools’ mascot for the day together with H’Angus, and we’re sure they will get up to twice the mischief around the stadium.
Our Her Game Too team will be walking around the stadium with our selfie board and flag to grab photos with as many supporters as possible. We will also be doing a bucket collection to raise funds for the female teams from the grassroots clubs within the Youth Alliance.
We will have ball girls from Seaton Carew U12’s. The Junior Poolies are a group of female pupils from Clavering Primary School, who were the first school in the country to form a working partnership with Her Game Too. They will also be the flag bearers holding our Her Game Too flags kindly donated by the Hart of Our Club 1908. Additionally, we will have two very special female mascots from Hartlepool Young Carers.
Two lucky girls from our grassroots teams will get the opportunity to announce the line-ups to the stadium in the run up to kick-off. Our Her Game Too player advocate, Tom Crawford, will visit the Club Shop before the game to meet supporters. We also have a Her Game Too Player of the Match award to hand out in association with Hart of Our Club in the 1908 Bar at the full time whistle.
Her Game Too Director and co-founder, Lucy Ford, commented:
“For the third year in row, Her Game Too are working with their partner clubs across the football pyramid to celebrate International Women’s Day.
We want to say a huge thank you to Hartlepool United for their continued support and for dedicating their fixture against Barnet on Saturday to Her Game Too!
Football is a game for all and we hope everyone in attendance enjoys their day!”
HUFC x HGT Ambassador Jill added:
“This year has seen a huge amount of growth within female football as well as sport in general within Hartlepool. I am overwhelmed with the support Hartlepool United have shown over the time I’ve have been involved with the campaign, which is almost two years.
As our team grows, so does the opportunity to develop our work within the Durham County FA Inclusion Advisory Group. We’re also continuing to raise funds for our grassroots clubs as they try and grow participation. So, the dedicated match is a chance to celebrate all the positive work that has been done by many amazing volunteers, male and female, in making football inclusive to all.
It is a common misconception that we are here for female players only - we are here to support females in football, and that includes the many female supporters who have devoted their time to Hartlepool United. Let’s keep the Suit Direct Stadium a welcoming, positive environment where we can all enjoy the sport we love.
More events are in the pipeline across the coming year, and we are all looking forward to seeing what the future holds.
Enjoy the day Poolies and let’s hope we can top it off with a win.”
The players will again be wearing special Her Game Too warm-up tops supplied by HUWFC sponsors, Logo To Go. These shirts are available to purchase directly from Pools Retail in both blue and pink.
Owner of Logo To Go, Melissa Howlett, stated:
“I absolutely love the Her Game Too campaign, especially as we have a daughter, Jessica, who is a huge Pools supporter and season ticket. It’s great that Hartlepool United are supporting this and are dedicating this game to the campaign. We are delighted that our store Logo To Go have again sponsored the team’s warm up t-shirts to help promote the day.”